Indiana inmates accuse public defenders of mishandling cases

A group of inmates facing felony charges in Johnson County say they've received little to no assistance from their court-appointed public defenders, some of whom accuse their attorneys of forcing them to accept plea agreements.

Such are some of the allegations detailed in a complaint filed by several inmates against several Johnson County officials, including the Board of Commissioners, four judges and seven part-time public defenders. The lawsuit, which alleges a constitutional violation and breach of contract, was filed Thursday in the Civil Division of Marion Superior Court.

The allegations, according to the lawsuit, largely arose from an overburdened public defender system where the number of cases assigned to attorneys were well above the allowed limit.

Many of the plaintiffs, according to the complaint, only saw their public defender during brief court hearings. The plaintiffs said their lawyers almost never met with them outside of court or visited them in jail. And they say others were forced to accept plea agreements despite having maintained their innocence. In some cases, the lawsuit says, the inmates sent letters asking their attorneys to conduct discovery or to file a motion for a speedy trial, but such letters were ignored.

In the case of Richard Daniels, who is facing a felony and is incarcerated, his public defender tried to pressure him into accepting a plea deal after talking to him only twice, according to the complaint. In another case, Richard Bunton had no communication with his public defender for a month following his arrest. He has since bonded out, and it's unclear whether he and his public defender have talked, court records say.

The judges named as defendants in the lawsuit are Johnson Circuit Court Judge Mark Loyd and Superior Court judges Kevin Barton, Lance Hamner and Cynthia Emkes. The public defenders named in the lawsuit are John Wilson, Michael Bohn, Andrew Eggers, John Norris, Daniel Vandivier, J. Andrew Woods and Matthew Solomon.

All the attorneys, the complaint says, maintained their own private practice at the same time that they represented the plaintiffs as part-time public defenders for Johnson County. One of the defendants, Eggers, now works for the Johnson County prosecutor's office.

A phone call to the Board of Commissioners' office has not been returned. Majority of the defendants, including all of the attorneys, were unavailable for comment Friday afternoon.

One of the judges, Loyd, said he believes the lawsuit tries to use Johnson County as a test case for the need for public defenders. Another judge, Hamner, said the lawsuit, by its nature, is merely an allegation.

"While we can't comment specifically on pending litigation, I can tell you that the Indiana attorney general's office will vigorously represent the courts in this matter," Hamner said.

The attorney general's office, which is required by law to represent state court judges sued in their official capacity, will review the complaint and file a response in court, the agency's spokesman, Bryan Corbin, said.

Johnson County, like many other Indiana counties, does not have a public defender agency. The defendants, the lawsuit says, had contracts with judges to work as part-time public defenders.

According to the lawsuit, the county commissioners and the judges are required to operate a public defender system that gives court-appointed attorneys reasonable caseloads. But some of the defendants' caseloads are well over the required limit for both full-time and part-time public defenders. The lawsuit says the commissioners and judges knew that some of the attorneys' caseloads were beyond the allowable limits, but did nothing to mitigate the situation.

The Indiana Public Defender Commission has set a standard of 60 to 75 felony cases and 150 to 200 misdemeanor cases a year for one part-time public defender.

Wilson, one of the defendants, was assigned 176 felony cases and 32 misdemeanor cases in 2014, according to the complaint. Another defendant, Bohn, had 83 felony cases and 69 misdemeanor cases.

Jonathan Little, one of the Indianapolis lawyers who's representing the plaintiffs, said that because the contracts allow court-appointed attorneys to get paid a fixed amount of $55,000 regardless of workload or how much work they provide in each case, "there's no incentive for them to work."

"We don't do a very good job of taking care of the least among us," Little said. "Guy shows up in court, they meet him, greet him and plead him."

The state's trial rules allow for the lawsuit to be filed in Marion County. The lawsuit says filing the complaint in Johnson County would not be appropriate because of the involvement of judges from that county.

Call Star reporter Kristine Guerra at (317) 444-6209. Follow her on Twitter: @kristine_guerra.

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